[BobD]

ipop... that's great information. I for one really appreciate you taking the time to write this up and post it. Thanks!!

 

[ipop]

i'm glad to help out Bob.
by my records the next 3 weeks should be the best for stripers in the falls area.

 

[ipop]

i landed a 9-10# keeper on a fly rod the other day, actualy looking for mackeral. there were 2 of us trying fly rods, the other guy was using an 8# leader according to him, while i was using the heavy tappering leader i listed before. he never landed a keeper size fish, but did fine with schoolies with no break off.

i had a lot of touble with some striper flies and other salt water flies, some were just too light for the heavy rod & line, some obviosly needed to be trolled, but it was nice to try it out. oh, and i did land a mackeral - great little fight on a fly rod!

hmm, i just checked and i guess i didn't tell ya'll about leader for fly fishin stripers, so here's my info.

you can get away with a 8-13# leader fly fishing for stripers, if you are lucky and are hooking schoolies, however you should step up to a tappered leader for the big guys. after a lot of research i have come up with this tappering formula used in maine:
4' of 30# mono connecting to 3' of 25# mono connecting to 2' of 20# mono connected to 1-2' of 17-20# floro (floro working better on those gillplates and other shearing problems). the original said 1' of floro - wrong! unless you like retieing a leader on the river, these are big flies and you go through a lot of leader just tieing them on, so 1-2' of floro on the end is a good idea. use the heaviest rod and reel you can find. that all said, a 6-8weight combo will get you into the action.

 

[ipop]

the abu reel i was talking about earlier, the one that comes on the great rod, but isn't such a great reel?! i had taken it off the rod, since i knes these reels don't stand up, and put it on one of my kayak rods for stripers, and also used it for mackeral. jimies son landed a striper on it he hooked himself, which is nice

and anothwer local that hadn't landed a striper and was breaking off due to trout line landed a couple on it when i saw what was happening and lent it to him. when i got it back it barely worked - i thought it was sand, so no biggie. when i tried to use it next it was frozen solid

no suprise but still disappointing, it didn't even last a season. so, thinking i was wasting my time

i decided to try to fix it. my low expectations were due to tring this before on another one of these reels and finding destroyed parts. this time i found it was full of rust and corrosion. i stripped it down and at every step i found more, even to the frame. a lot of cleaning, a bit of emery cloth and file work, some new grease...and it works again!

i have no idea for how long, but i do like it's medium size and large line capacity. i have my fingers crossed! lol